One of Bulgaria's most memorable museum experiences awaits you in the hills near Pavlikeni. There, in a charming grove amid the farming land you will find the well preserved remains of an ancient Roman rural villa that was the centre of mass scale pottery production. 

There, between the 1st and 3rd century AD, potters use make and fire in large kilns everything - from sewage pipes to fine pottery to gods' statuettes to children's toys. The villa's remains were discovered by treasure hunters in the 1970s, after the ensuing excavations a museum was created. 

Signed bricks

It not only told the story of the local pottery production. It also had a working kiln and visitors would be able to fire something in it. Today this part of the exhibition does not work, but the visit is still worth it.

Visit for:

• Excellently preserved pottery kilns
• The charming museum collection of different pottery objects and children's toys
• The walls of bricks fired and signed by notable visitors, like Lyudmila Zhivkova, daughter of Communist dictator Todor Zhivkov
• The site's bucolic beauty

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